3 Reasons Why Diet Culture is Toxic in Menopause
To understand why diet culture is toxic in menopause, it helps to understand what that term means.
Diet culture refers to a system, and a belief set
This belief set upholds thinness as an ideal way to be. It places the ACT of achieving thinness, which is DIETING, as the highest priority of health, while consciously, or subconsciously, pushing those who cannot achieve a certain “look” or thinness. aside.
For a deeper look at diet culture and all that it does, read this post
It’s hard to see the toxicity in diet culture, if you are currently going through menopause or are post menopausal.
Why is this?
Most women who are currently menopausal were raised on diet culture.
Many of our mothers dieted, we were bombarded with fatphobic messages, and media, and even the way clothing is designed doesn’t fit larger bodies.
(Listen to THIS episode of The Fullness Podcast to hear how clothing is SIZED on fitness models, no matter the size of woman that will wear it!)
I recently watched Desperate Housewives. Couldn’t stop! It reeled me in!
It WAS entertaining, BUT … I saw so much fatphobic messaging in there, and this type of show would not fly today.
Weight insults and weight references were NUMEROUS.
Once you learn the meaning of diet culture and fatphobia, the things we used to find entertaining, take on new meaning. And you can’t look away.
As we go through menopause, and face the changes of our bodies, understanding diet culture helps you see the messages you didn’t see before
While Diet Culture messaging is detrimental
to all of us, it creates UNREALISTIC VIEWS about our aging bodies that are harmful.
Most women’s bodies change in midlife. Fat is redistributed in the middle, and it acts as a creator of estrogen.
Women gain weight in midlife, for many reasons.
Decreases in muscle mass, increase in fat, metabolism changes, and changes in the HPO Axis (The Hypothalamic Pituitary Ovarian Axis) are just a few reasons. (1)
What about increased stress and fatigue?
Just researching the reasons tor menopausal weight gain, and even looking for a statistic to show the number of women who gain weight in menopause, pulled up so many articles and sales pages on losing weight in menopause, I GAVE UP LOOKING.
Weight loss programs for menopause belly fat are numerous.
It’s hard to resist, as we age, because some of us do long for the person, and perhaps the body, we had at 25.
Unfortunately, many programs do not address your unique nutritional needs, nor do they work long term.
They rarely address the emotional side of eating and just increase fear of food.
There’s four reasons right there why diet culture is not helpful.
Here’s 3 reasons Diet Culture is toxic.
Diet Culture perpetuates weight stigma. What is weight stigma?
This is discrimination, based on size. It exists everywhere, including the doctors office. People in larger bodies are blamed "for their weight, with common perceptions that weight stigmatization is justifiable and may motivate individuals to adopt healthier behaviours (2)"Healthcare providers do have “anti-fat” bias, which can lead to poorer care of larger bodied individuals. This weight stigma and anti fat bias drives fear of weight gain.
Pair that with the health anxiety in menopause, and this creates a lot of stress about one’s body.
We DO become anxious of chronic illness, such as diabetes, heart disease and dementia as we age. That’s understandable.
Dieting is not the answer to these issues.
Diet culture places a value on thinness, and there is much questioning around the *O* epidemic asa social construct, not a health crisis (1).
The health issues that may come with some larger bodies, (AND with smaller bodies) is also paired with the societal driven view of larger bodies being “undesirable” (2).
This results in health issues being missed at the doctors office, due to weight stigma.Diet culture creates feelings of unworthiness.
This means a lot for the menopausal woman. Aging creates invisibility for us in the workplace, and in other places in society. Worries about body weight compound the difficulty in facing aging and changes in our bodies.The outside influences on the negativity of menopausal weight gain can increase negative thoughts about body mage (3).
If you are genetically in a different body shape, then attaining a "thin status" is difficult or impossible, without putting yourself in harm's way. What do I mean by harm?
Physical harm, from lack of calories and nutrients, and emotional harm.
Have you ever felt so disappointed in yourself when you've gone off a diet? Have you ever called yourself names because of what you ate, or how much you weighed?
That's just the beginning...Diet Culture is a gateway to eating disorders.
Body changes, losses, transitions and health issues can accompany midlife. Eating disorders in midlife increase (3).
“Eating disorders interfere with the natural longing for and need for nourishment, rest, meaningful relationships, and health (4)”
The term disordered eating refers to behaviours such as meal skipping, dieting, rigid rules around food, obsessive exercise behaviour as penance for eating, and … the all too popular fasting.
This type of behaviour can cross over into more eating disordered behaviour, like binging and purging. Eating disorders have their own criteria, but many of these behaviours can move into each others territory.This can begin with dieting.
And dieting begins with body dissatisfaction, in one way or another.
And body dissatisfaction begins somewhere too.
You see what I mean? You get stuck in a toxic loop.
There ARE medical conditions that may require changes in your life, and not always food changes.
As I’ve tuned into my OWN body, I can see how certain foods may affect me, and more importantly, I can see where food thoughts lead to reigniting thoughts about health and body size.
Are you ready to tune in to your body and mind with Mindful Eating?
Sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2866597/
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11920-019-1057-5
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-43380-012